How to Write a Show HN Post That Works

TL;DR

• A Show HN is for something you made that other people can try. Blog posts, sign-up pages, newsletters, lists and other reading material are off topic, and so are landing pages and fundraisers (Show HN guidelines, last checked 17 Oct 2026).
• The title has to begin with Show HN. After that, say plainly what the thing is or does, with no marketing language (Show HN guidelines and HN tips on presenting your work, last checked 17 Oct 2026).
• Write text with the backstory, what is different and a clear statement of what it is. The HN tips say it should appear at the top of the submission, or as your first comment if it does not (HN tips on presenting your work, last checked 17 Oct 2026).
• Hacker News publishes no best time to post. Its FAQ says the basic ranking divides points by a power of the time since submission, so post when you can stay in the thread for the first hours (HN FAQ, last checked 17 Oct 2026).
• Do not ask anyone to upvote or comment, do not let friends post booster comments, and write every word yourself. HN says it penalizes or bans vote solicitation and asks people not to post generated or AI-edited text (HN FAQ and HN guidelines, last checked 17 Oct 2026).

To write a Show HN, start with something people can try today. Give it a title that begins with Show HN and says plainly what it does, then add your own text covering the backstory, what is different and how to try it. Hacker News publishes no recommended posting hour. Its FAQ says ranking divides points by a power of the time since submission, so a post gains or loses ground fastest in its first hours. Post when you can stay in the thread for those hours. Every rule below comes from Hacker News's own pages, with the date each was last checked (Show HN guidelines and HN FAQ, last checked 17 Oct 2026).

Disclosure: ZeroRaised is a live launch and discovery site for solo and bootstrapped makers. This article makes no claim about its audience or results.

What is a Show HN, according to Hacker News?#

Show HN is a post type on Hacker News, not a separate site. The guidelines open with one sentence: "Show HN is for something you've made that other people can play with." Readers try the thing out, give feedback and ask questions in the thread (Show HN guidelines, last checked 17 Oct 2026).

The line is drawn at tryability. On topic: "things people can run on their computers or hold in their hands." For hardware you can post a video or a detailed article, and for books a sample chapter is fine. Off topic: blog posts, sign-up pages, newsletters, lists and other reading material, because they cannot be tried out. The guidelines say to make those a regular submission instead. They also say not to post landing pages or fundraisers, and that if your work is not ready for users to try, you should wait and come back when it is (Show HN guidelines, last checked 17 Oct 2026).

The project should be non-trivial. The guidelines say not to post quickly generated one-offs ("anybody can do that now"), to share something deeply personal and interesting to you, and to explain how and why you made it. It must be something you worked on personally and are around to discuss. It does not need to be complicated or polished: the guidelines say the community "is comfortable with work that's at an early stage" (Show HN guidelines, last checked 17 Oct 2026).

The FAQ puts it more briefly: "Show HN is for sharing your personal work and has special rules" (HN FAQ, last checked 17 Oct 2026).

If you have not yet decided whether Hacker News is the right venue, Product Hunt vs Show HN compares the two on rules, cost, audience and relaunch policy. This guide assumes you have chosen Show HN.

What are the official Show HN rules?#

Three pages set the rules, and all three were last checked for this article on 17 Oct 2026:

• The Show HN guidelines, which cover this post type.
• The Hacker News guidelines, which cover every submission and comment.
• A tips comment on presenting your work, posted by the HN account dang and linked from the Show HN guidelines with the words "See these tips about how to present your work." The comment was edited on 28 March 2026 to say the team can no longer reply to emails about it, that the tips are still valid, and to add a new tip about generated text (covered below).

The rules that most often decide whether a Show HN is allowed:

The username rule comes from the tips, not the guidelines page. The tips say a company or project username "creates a feeling of using HN for promotion and of not really participating as a person." You do not have to use your real name, just something that shows you are there as a human, not a brand. To change an existing username, the tips and the FAQ both say to email hn@ycombinator.com (HN tips on presenting your work and HN FAQ, last checked 17 Oct 2026).

One general rule matters for the account as a whole. The guidelines say: "Please don't use HN primarily for promotion. It's ok to post your own stuff part of the time, but the primary use of the site should be for curiosity." They also ask people not to create accounts routinely, because "users should have an identity that others can relate to" (HN guidelines, last checked 17 Oct 2026). A fresh account made only to post a launch goes against both rules. The FAQ adds that green usernames mark new accounts, so readers can see when an account is new (HN FAQ, last checked 17 Oct 2026).

What has to be true before you post?#

Check four things before you write the title. Each one comes from a rule.

People can use it now. "Soon" or "after you join the waitlist" does not count. The guidelines say that if your work is not ready for users to try, you should not do a Show HN yet (Show HN guidelines, last checked 17 Oct 2026). The guidelines do not mention waitlists by name, but a waitlist is a sign-up page, and sign-up pages are listed as off topic.

There is a real thing behind the link. A working demo, a downloadable build, a public instance or an open repository all qualify. The tips say "the product/project needs to actually exist and there needs to be a way for people to try it out," and that it "can't just be a landing page or market test or fundraiser or a blog post or a curated list or other reading material." They also explain why: "If we allowed 'Show HN' on all those things, nearly every post would be a Show HN" (HN tips on presenting your work, last checked 17 Oct 2026).

Trying it is easy. The guidelines ask you to let people try your thing "ideally without barriers such as signups or emails," because "you'll get more feedback that way." The tips go further: "HN users get ornery if you make them jump through hoops" (Show HN guidelines and HN tips on presenting your work, last checked 17 Oct 2026). A signup is not banned, but a product that opens straight into something usable will get more replies.

You can stay in the thread. The guidelines say the project must be something you are around to discuss. Because the ranking divides points by elapsed time, the first hours carry the most weight, and that is when questions arrive (HN FAQ, last checked 17 Oct 2026).

If any of these is not true yet, fix it first. The product launch checklist covers the readiness work in order, including testing the main path as a stranger would.

How do you write the title?#

The only structural requirement is the prefix: "To post, submit a story whose title begins with 'Show HN'" (Show HN guidelines, last checked 17 Oct 2026). Everything after it falls under the general title rules and the tips.

The general rules are about restraint (HN guidelines, last checked 17 Oct 2026):

• Do not make titles stand out "like using uppercase or exclamation points, or saying how great an article is."
• Take the site name out of the title, because it is displayed after the link.
• Crop a gratuitous number or number plus adjective, for example "10 Ways To Do X" becomes "Ways To Do X". The exception is a meaningful number, such as "The 5 Platonic Solids."
• If the link is a video or a PDF, add [video] or [pdf] to the end of the title. This matters for hardware Show HNs that link straight to a demo video.
• Do not use uppercase for emphasis anywhere. Use asterisks for italics instead.

The tips add what the title and text need to contain. Include "a clear statement of what your project is or does," because otherwise "the discussion will consist of 'I can't tell what this is'." Drop any language that sounds like marketing or sales, because "on HN, that is an instant turnoff," and use factual, direct language (HN tips on presenting your work, last checked 17 Oct 2026).

So the title has three jobs: announce the post type, name the thing, and say what it does. Leave the tagline on your website.

What are good Show HN title templates?#

These are patterns to fill with the plainest accurate words, not strings to paste. The right column shows what would break the rules quoted above.

Three illustrative titles for a made-up product show the difference between describing and selling:

• Weak: Show HN: SuperSearch, the 10x faster search tool everyone needs! A gratuitous number, an exclamation point and a superlative, all of which the title rules discourage.
• Better: Show HN: SuperSearch, search your notes and PDFs from one box. It names the thing and says what it does.
• Better for a personal tool: Show HN: SuperSearch, a local index for my own notes and PDFs. It also says where the software runs, which invites technical questions.

None of the three repeats the domain or uses capitals for emphasis.

What goes in the text and the first comment?#

The tips list what to include when you share your own work (HN tips on presenting your work, last checked 17 Oct 2026):

• Text giving the backstory of how you came to work on it and what is different about it, which "tends to seed discussion in a good direction."
• A clear statement of what the project is or does.
• Links to any previous HN threads that are relevant, because "readers like those."
• Factual, direct language. "Personal stories and technical details are great."

That fits into six short blocks:

1. What it is. One or two sentences naming the product and what it does.
2. Why you built it. Where the problem came from, what you tried first and why the existing options did not fit.
3. What is different. One or two concrete decisions that set it apart from the alternatives.
4. How it works. The stack, the hard part and the trade-off you chose.
5. How to try it. What the reader will see after clicking, plus any signup, pricing, platform limits or missing features, stated up front.
6. What you want from the thread. One or two real questions.

Links to earlier threads go in block 2 or block 4. If you posted an earlier version as a Show HN, the tips require you to link it (see the section on reposts below).

Should the text go in the submission or the first comment?#

The tips accept either: "Your text should show up at the top of the Show HN submission, but if for some reason it doesn't, add it as a first comment to the thread. Either way is fine" (HN tips on presenting your work, last checked 17 Oct 2026).

The practical difference is links. The formatting page says: "Urls become links, except in the text field of a submission" (HN formatting options, last checked 17 Oct 2026). The FAQ explains why. You cannot make a link in a text submission "to prevent people from submitting a link with their comments in a privileged position at the top of the page," and if you want to submit a link with comments, "just submit the link, then add a regular comment" (HN FAQ, last checked 17 Oct 2026).

Your product's main link already goes in the URL field. If your text needs more clickable links (docs, a repository, an earlier thread), put them in the first comment.

The formatting rules are short (HN formatting options, last checked 17 Oct 2026):

• Blank lines separate paragraphs.
• Text surrounded by asterisks is italicized. For a literal asterisk, use \* or **.
• Text after a blank line that is indented by two or more spaces is formatted as code, which is useful for a command or config snippet.
• If a URL gets linked incorrectly, put it in angle brackets.

There is no Markdown for headings, bullets or bold, so write in plain paragraphs. The FAQ also describes a profile setting called delay that holds your comments back for up to 10 minutes so you can edit them before anyone else sees them (HN FAQ, last checked 17 Oct 2026). It is useful if you tend to spot typos right after posting.

When should you post a Show HN?#

Hacker News does not publish a recommended hour, weekday or peak window, and this guide does not make one up. What it does publish is how ranking works.

The FAQ says: "The basic algorithm divides points by a power of the time since a story was submitted." Other factors include "user flags, anti-abuse software, software which demotes overheated discussions, account or site weighting, and moderator action." Asked whether posts by users with more karma rank higher, the FAQ answers "No" (HN FAQ, last checked 17 Oct 2026).

One practical inference from the published time-decay formula is that you should post when you can be present during the first hours; Hacker News does not publish a best hour (HN FAQ, last checked 17 Oct 2026).

The Show HN page adds one more step. "Every Show HN appears on shownew. Once it clears a small points threshold, it will appear on the show page in the top bar" (Show HN guidelines, last checked 17 Oct 2026). The FAQ describes the same threshold for both Ask HN and Show HN (HN FAQ, last checked 17 Oct 2026). Neither page gives the threshold number.

Threads also have a time limit. "Threads are closed to new comments after two weeks, or if the submission has been killed by software, moderators, or user flags" (HN FAQ, last checked 17 Oct 2026).

A timing plan that fits these facts:

• Pick a day when you have several free hours starting from the moment you post.
• Post by hand from your own account. The guidelines say "please don't automate posting" (HN guidelines, last checked 17 Oct 2026).
• Have the product live, the link tested and the first comment drafted before you submit, so you can post the comment within a minute.
• Do not tell friends, customers or a community channel to go to the thread. The guidelines say asking friends to upvote or comment is "not ok on HN," and the FAQ says asking people to comment is also off limits (Show HN guidelines and HN FAQ, last checked 17 Oct 2026).

How does Hacker News rank a Show HN?#

The FAQ's ranking answer is short, and it rules out most launch folklore (HN FAQ, last checked 17 Oct 2026):

• Points are divided by a power of the time since submission.
• Flags, anti-abuse software, demotion of overheated discussions, account or site weighting and moderator action also affect rank.
• More karma does not lift a post.
• "Comments in threads are ranked the same way," so an early, useful first comment from you tends to stay near the top.
• "You can't derive rank from votes and time alone," which is the FAQ's answer to why a newer post with more points can sit below an older one.

For a Show HN there is one extra step: the post starts on shownew and reaches the show page after it clears the points threshold (Show HN guidelines, last checked 17 Oct 2026). Moderation also plays a part. Moderator action is listed as a ranking factor, and the tips say HN sometimes sends repost invites to submitters who have an email address in their profile (HN tips on presenting your work, last checked 17 Oct 2026). The tips suggest adding an email address so moderators can "contact you if we notice anything" and send that invite.

Bootstrapped makers should know about one structural difference. The FAQ says Y Combinator owns and funds HN, and that one of the three features HN gives YC is that "startup launches get placed on the front page" (HN FAQ, last checked 17 Oct 2026). A Show HN from a self-funded maker gets no such placement and goes through the normal ranking. Curated launch sites work differently again, and the Product Hunt alternatives guide compares them.

Put together, you cannot buy position, karma does not help, and you cannot arrange votes. What you control is whether the product is worth trying, whether the title and text explain it, and whether you are there to answer.

What is off topic for a Show HN?#

The guidelines and tips name the categories directly.

Sources: Show HN guidelines and HN tips on presenting your work, last checked 17 Oct 2026.

In short, Show HN wants something to use, not something to read. Reading material can still go on HN as a regular submission, just without the Show HN prefix.

Two edge cases come up often. An app behind an invite code is not named in the rules, but it creates exactly the kind of signup barrier the guidelines ask you to avoid, so it will get less feedback than an open demo. For hardware that cannot be tried over the internet, the tips suggest finding another way to show it working, "a video, for example, or a detailed post with photos" (HN tips on presenting your work, last checked 17 Oct 2026).

How do you prepare the thing people will try?#

The post is half the work. The other half is what a reader sees in the first minute after clicking. The tips warn that HN users "get ornery if you make them jump through hoops" (HN tips on presenting your work, last checked 17 Oct 2026). A pre-post pass:

• Open the link in a private window and on a phone, with no logged-in session, and complete the first useful action.
• Ship realistic sample data or a demo mode so readers can see results before they commit their own files or accounts.
• State pricing, limits, supported platforms and any signup requirement on the page itself.
• For open-source projects, make sure the README explains installation and links to the live demo if there is one.
• Decide in advance how you will say "it is down, fixing now" in the thread if the server buckles, and test the page on a slow mobile connection.

Tryability is a rule here, not a preference, so a "join the beta" page cannot carry a Show HN however well it is written (Show HN guidelines, last checked 17 Oct 2026). If the product is early, the product launch checklist covers the technical and legal basics.

Open-source maintainers can use the open-source project marketing guide to prepare the repository and community path around the Show HN post.

How should you reply in the thread?#

The Show HN guidelines have a short section on comments that applies to makers as much as readers: be respectful, ask questions out of curiosity and do not cross-examine, suggest alternatives instead of saying "you're doing it wrong," and when something is not good, "you needn't pretend that it is, but don't be gratuitously negative" (Show HN guidelines, last checked 17 Oct 2026).

The general guidelines add several rules that defensive makers break. Be kind and do not be snarky. Respond to "the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says." Do not post shallow dismissals (HN guidelines, last checked 17 Oct 2026). If someone says the onboarding is confusing, ask where they got stuck instead of arguing that it is not confusing.

Two more general rules apply when a launch thread gets heated. Do not post insinuations about astroturfing or shilling. If you are worried about abuse, email hn@ycombinator.com. And do not comment about the voting on comments (HN guidelines, last checked 17 Oct 2026). If a critic seems unfair, answer the substance or let it go.

Practical habits that follow from these rules:

• Answer with facts, and say so when you do not know. "I'll check and reply" is a fine answer if you follow up.
• Say plainly that you built it, in your text and wherever it is not obvious from context.
• If something breaks under load, say so, fix it and post again when it is fixed. Calm, factual replies also avoid the demotion of overheated discussions that the FAQ lists as a ranking factor.

Booster comments are what most often sink a Show HN. The tips say: "Make sure your friends and users do not add booster comments in the thread. HN users are adept at picking up on those, they consider it spamming, and they will flame you for it." A friend with something genuinely interesting to say is fine, "but comments should not be promotional" (HN tips on presenting your work, last checked 17 Oct 2026). The FAQ says the same about asking for comments: readers "will detect it, flag it, and use unkind words like 'spam'." About upvotes it says: "We penalize or ban submissions, accounts, and sites that break this rule" (HN FAQ, last checked 17 Oct 2026).

What happens if your Show HN is flagged or killed?#

The FAQ explains the labels you may see (HN FAQ, last checked 17 Oct 2026):

• [flagged] means users flagged the post as breaking the guidelines or not belonging on HN. Moderators sometimes turn flags off when they are unfair.
• [dead] means the post was killed by software, user flags or moderators. Dead posts are hidden by default. Users above a small karma threshold can vouch for a dead post, and when enough do, it is restored.
• [deleted] means the author deleted it, or asked HN to.

Do not delete the post and submit it again. Both the FAQ and the guidelines say: "Please don't delete and repost. Deletion is for things that shouldn't have been submitted in the first place" (HN guidelines, last checked 17 Oct 2026). If you think a post was killed by mistake, contact the moderators. The guidelines say not to post on HN to ask or tell the team something, and to send it to hn@ycombinator.com instead.

When can you repost or post an update?#

An ordinary update is not a Show HN. The guidelines say new features and upgrades ("Foo 1.3.1 is out") generally are not substantive enough, though "a major overhaul is probably ok" (Show HN guidelines, last checked 17 Oct 2026). The tips set the bar: you can post a new release as a Show HN "only if the new version is significantly different," not an incremental upgrade, and that this should probably happen only once or twice a year, because more starts to be excessive (HN tips on presenting your work, last checked 17 Oct 2026).

When you do repost, follow the tips: add a comment linking to the previous Show HN and explaining what is different this time. That also answers the "didn't you post this already?" question before anyone asks it.

For ordinary stories, the FAQ says a small number of reposts is ok if a story "has not had significant attention in the last year or so," and that other reposts are buried as duplicates (HN FAQ, last checked 17 Oct 2026).

What does a finished Show HN look like?#

The example below is invented. Tilebox is not a real product, and the post makes no factual claims. It shows the shape of a post that follows the rules: a plain title and a first comment built from the six blocks above.

Title

Show HN: Tilebox, a local search index for my own notes and PDFs

Why it works: it starts with Show HN, names the product, says what it is and does, and has no superlative, gratuitous number, exclamation point or domain name (HN guidelines, last checked 17 Oct 2026).

First comment

I built Tilebox because I could never find anything I had saved. I have years of notes, bookmarks and PDFs across three machines, and every search tool I tried either required uploading the files to someone else's server or only indexed one format. So the first version indexes plain text, Markdown and the text layer of PDFs, and keeps the index on disk.

What is different is that it is local by default and treats the index as a folder you can move, back up or delete. Nothing leaves the machine unless you copy the folder yourself. The trade-off is that the first run takes a while on a large library, and scanned PDFs without a text layer are skipped, not OCR'd.

It runs on macOS and Linux from a single binary, with no account and no telemetry. A sample library is included so you can see results before indexing your own files.

Two questions. Does anyone with a scanned library want OCR in the next version, or is that a niche of one? And is a folder as the index the right model, or would you rather it used an existing database file?

I built this myself and will be in the thread for the next few hours.

Why it works: the first sentence says what it is, then come the backstory, what is different, the trade-off, how to try it and its limits. It ends with two real questions and says the author built it. There are no marketing adjectives. The quote block is only for this article. On HN you would post it as plain text with blank lines between paragraphs (HN formatting options, last checked 17 Oct 2026). Write your own version from scratch: the tips ask for text written by hand.

What mistakes get a Show HN ignored or removed?#

Each mistake below goes against a rule or tip quoted above.

Sources: Show HN guidelines, HN guidelines, HN FAQ and HN tips on presenting your work, last checked 17 Oct 2026.

The rule on generated text deserves extra attention because it is new and strict. The tip added on 28 March 2026 says: "Write your text by hand. Don't use an LLM to generate any of it (not even a tiny bit, including to edit or spruce it up)." The reason it gives is that the community is "super fussy about this right now" and LLM language "leaves imprints." The same tip says this is not a rule against using LLMs in general, only against using them to generate or edit text you post to HN. The guidelines say the same: "Please don't put generated text in HN posts" and "Don't post generated text or AI-edited text" in comments (HN tips on presenting your work and HN guidelines, last checked 17 Oct 2026).

Where does ZeroRaised fit?#

ZeroRaised is a launch board for products with no institutional VC or accelerator equity, and it works differently from Show HN. A Show HN thread rises or falls with HN's ranking and closes to new comments after two weeks. On ZeroRaised, launches go live at 00:01 PT, votes close at midnight PT, and the board is then frozen as a permanent record that stays browsable in the archive (ZeroRaised about page, last checked 17 Oct 2026). The ZeroRaised launch-time page converts those times to your zone.

The funding policy: a product is ineligible if it has ever received institutional VC or accelerator equity. Self-funding, customer revenue, friends-and-family funding, crowdfunding and non-dilutive grants are allowed, and submissions are reviewed before publication (ZeroRaised about page, last checked 17 Oct 2026). Submitting is free (submit page, last checked 17 Oct 2026). For how a launch day runs, see the submit page. The maker perks page lists public free tiers from tools makers already use and explains how founding partners get listed.

The two venues do not replace each other. Post a Show HN once the product can be tried and you can stay in the thread, and list the same product on a board that keeps it findable after launch day. If you are comparing places to launch, where to launch a SaaS matches venues to product stage and audience, and how to launch a bootstrapped app gives a sequence for makers with no audience.

For product-specific release checks, see the Chrome extension launch guide, the vibe coded app launch guide, and the AI app launch guide.

Sources#

• Hacker News, Show HN guidelines, last checked 17 Oct 2026
• Hacker News guidelines, last checked 17 Oct 2026
• Hacker News FAQ, last checked 17 Oct 2026
• Hacker News, tips on presenting your work, last checked 17 Oct 2026
• Hacker News formatting options, last checked 17 Oct 2026
• ZeroRaised, about page, last checked 17 Oct 2026